Navajos Wear Nikes

February 15, 2011
Kristofic, now a high-school teacher in Pennsylvania, shares his story of being transported at age seven from Pittsburgh to Ganado, Arizona, on the Navajo Indian Reservation by his mother, a nurse who had long nurtured her Indian Dream. Jimmy is the only bilagaana, or white person, in his class, and he struggles with racial teasing from day one. By the third grade, hes learning to escape the daily taunting by helping his Navajo enemies with their schoolwork. Jimmys new world is one of contraststhe violence and domestic abuse so common on the Rez occurring amidst its natural wonders, the prejudice he experiences before forming life-long friendships, the poverty-stricken homes in which food is always shared with a stranger. His mother marries a Navajo artist, and when Jim is a sophomore, the blended family moves to a small Utah town, where once again he feels like the rootless transplant, the outsider, this time in a predominantly Anglo world. Today he teaches tolerance, reminding his students that Navajos dont usually wear moccasins, but, rather, Nikes like their own.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)